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.RAGEDIES IN NEW FORK'S PUBLIC 

RECORDS 



BY 



VICTOR HUGO PALTSITS 



Eeprinted from the Annual Report of the American Historical Association 
for 1909, pages 369-378 



<\ 



WASHINGTON 
1911 



/ i -/-fy S eA>&r&4-<^^ /; 



TRAGEDIES IN NEW YORK'S PUBLIC 

RECORDS 



BY 



VICTOR HUGO PALTSITS 



Keprinted from the Annual Eeport of the American Historical Association 
for 1909, pages 369-378 



<7> 



WASHINGTON 
1911 



V 







Gift 



DEC I3i8h 



TRAGEDIES IN NEW YORK'S PUBLIC RECORDS. 



By Victor Hugo Paltsits, State Historian of New York. 



We do not design to give in this paper a complete list of the 
dramatis personam in the tragedy of New York's public records; rot 
can we trace every assassination of these records to its source. Any- 
thing like elaboration would need volumes for a history of the losses 
and neglect of the records of this State and its local jurisdictions, and 
such an account is, manifestly, impossible under the circumstances. 

Nor is it necessary or pertinent to emphasize to this audience — so 
well informed as to what is being done in European countries and 
some of our States — the need of legislation in every enlightened com- 
monwealth for safeguarding, coordinating, and publishing the his- 
torical, economical, sociological, and legal sources under State super- 
vision. We have time merely to trip lightly over this vast subject — 
to point out instances as examples and to characterize conditions 
that too generally prevail, to the great regret of scholars and the 
great shame of the State. 

In the treatment of archives there is a triune function — preserva- 
tion, coordination, and publication. In other words, first preserve 
the records against theft, fire, damp, or wanton destruction; second, 
when preserved properly in each department of every city, town, 
village, and hamlet, and in the State by the State departments, the 
next step is coordination or a proper scientific classification, together 
with indexes as media for ready accessibility ; the third stage follows 
naturally, because when they are properly preserved and classified, 
the publication is easy for an expert. This consummation so de- 
voutly to be wished does not prevail in the State of New York; in 
fact, we lag far behind the activities in the principal European Gov- 
ernments and the conditions in quite a number of the United States. 
Yet, New York is called the " Empire State," and our State arms 
bear the motto " Excelsior." But there is an awakening among the 
students of history in this State, growing out of a world-wide move- 
ment, which will bear fruitage and make for the proper administra- 
tion of public archives throughout the State and under the official 
direction of the State. 

73885°— 11 24 369 



370 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 

The conscience of public officials is too often blunt in relation to 
inactive materials under their charge, because they look too generally 
upon their records from the standpoint of immediate practical use 
in administration. The reason why so much has been lost and is 
now being neglected or destroyed is that there is a natural tendency 
of men to neglect or destroy such things as are not useful to them- 
selves, or which for the moment seem to have passed their usefulness. 
For this reason every enlightened government owes it to itself and 
posterity to enact proper laws for controlling the situation, and 
should intrust the prosecution of the task to some one who has the 
instinct, sympathy, conscience, and ability to grapple with it. Time 
was when the British national records were as disgracefully adminis- 
tered as are some of ours. But, says Hubert Hall : 

At length the day came when the Government ceased to haggle over the 
refitting of the lofts and cellars, the tanks and stables, which had become the 
last refuge of the greatest national treasures possessed by any country in the 
world. What was left of our national Archives was transferred to a central 
repository, and we began to count our losses. 1 

Xot only were heavy losses detected, after centuries of neglect, in 
the national archives, but it was found that the local records had 
been pillaged by enterprising antiquaries, and that much of the 
official correspondence of the nation had been carried off by suc- 
cessive ministers to their own estates. More than half a century ago 
the British conscience found a corrective for these abuses. The con- 
ditions which Hall portrays have found their counterpart in our own 
national and State archives; only, many of us have not yet dis- 
covered or applied the corrective for preventing these abuses. 

It is true that the State of New York has not been wholly derelict 
toward the State records. But action has been spasmodic and un- 
scientific — it has not been progressive and successive; it has not 
been systematic; it has been lacking in perspective. For the local 
records this much can not be said — they are yet in penumbra; but 
the local records are also the State's title deeds. 

J. V. X. Yates, as secretary of state of Xew York, made a report 
to the legislature, in January, 1820, relative to the records, etc., in 
his office.- This was in obedience to two concurrent resolutions of the 
preceding session of the legislature, which directed, among other 
things, that certain regulation- and improvements be adopted in the 
office of the secretary of state "for the better preservation and 
security of the public records." The second concurrent resolution — 
v.;is directed principally to the preservation and arrangemenl of such of the 

records ;is concerned the claims and lilies of (his Slate, and of individuals, to 



1 Hubert Hull, studies in English Official Historical Documents. Cambridge, 1908, 

p. 7. 

'-'• in Benate, January •",. L820. Eteporl of tin- Secretary of State [etc.], informa- 
tion from pp. 1-.;, 82-80. 



CONFERENCE OF ARCHIVISTS. 371 

lands to the value of many millions of dollars. Of this description were the 
books of grants or patents, of deeds and of mortgages, the field books and 
maps. Many of these books were rapidly decaying, the binding mutilated and 
worn, the leaves loose, and some of the Indices imperfect and incomplete. Most 
of the field books were in pamphlet form, without binding, and exposed from 
that circumstance alone to injury or loss. The maps had suffered much by lapse 
of time; and by frequent reference and use many of them were torn, and 
almost all of them required to be cleansed, repaired, and mounted. 

He continues: 

As the value and importance of the records in this department forbade the 
idea of any removal, which might expose them to fraud, piracy, or accident, it 
became necessary that the bookbinders and workmen employed should conduct 
their labors in the record-room in this office, under the immediate personal 
inspection of the Secretary and of his deputy, and under an oath well and 
faithfully to discharge the trust reposed in them. 

Accordingly, skillful bookbinders were engaged. Some of the books 
were bound, others rebound, others again merely repaired and let- 
tered, and several were permitted to remain in the state in which 
they were originally found. The field books were reduced, in binding, 
to a comparatively small number ; the maps were cleansed, repaired, 
numbered, and mounted, and put into portfolios. The books of 
patents, deeds, and mortgages, and the field books were bound sub- 
stantially; indexes were examined and corrected; engrossed colonial 
and State laws, formerly in packets, were bound up in volumes; 
general alphabetical indexes were made to all the patents, deeds, 
field books, and maps in the office, and new boxes and cabinets were 
provided. Mr. Yates's report was accompanied by a short-title cata- 
logue or inventory of all of the records under his jurisdiction, and he 
also supplied an appendix in which he gave information about lost 
records, and of his endeavors to trace some of them in Massachusetts 
and Connecticut. He said : " Several important and much-to-be re- 
gretted piracies have been committed, and probably at a very early 
period, on the records in this office." He found gaps in the series of 
grants and patents under the Dutch government, in the proceedings 
of the director general and council during the Dutch regime and in 
their letter books, etc. He found a description of patents, orders, etc., 
that Sir Edmund Andros had " taken away for very improper and 
reprehensible purposes." Some of them found their way back to 
New York, but others, as he believed, were destroyed by the direction 
of Andros. 

On March 18, 1741, a fire occurred " in the roof of His Majesty's 
house at Fort George, near the chapel, consuming the house, the 
chapel, and some other buildings adjacent. Most of the public 
records in the secretary's office were fortunately rescued from the 
flames." It is evident that some were lost ; but no account of the ex- 
tent of the disaster has been noted. 



372 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 

Yates traces the history of the removal and loss of records during 
the American Revolution, involving the transfer of some to the 
British ships Dutchess of Gordon and Warwick^ and the seizure of 
others by a military force of the patriots. Samuel Bayard, jr., as 
secretary, reported to the British governor, James Robertson, on 
April 9, 1788, with reference to records in the possession of the 
British, as follows: 

That the books when received were in very bad condition, many of them 
much mildewed and greatly injured, in the binding particularly, owing, as I 
apprehend, to their having been a long time on shipboard and exposed to great 
damps, but as far as I have discovered, the writing is yet legible or in very 
few places defaced. I have used my best endeavors to preserve them, having 
frequently exposed them to the sun and air, and several times had them brushed 
through every leaf. 

The records in British hands were delivered over to the secretary 
of state soon after the British evacuation of Xew York City and were 
kept in that city until 1793, when they were removed to the city of 
Albany, the new seat of government. 

The first Legislature of the State of Xew York exhibited an intelli- 
gent interest in State and local records. On March 23, 1778, the 
senate passed a resolution, in which the assembly concurred the next 
day, as follows : 

That the Secretary of this State and the Clerks of the several Counties in the 
same be respectively authorized to put, or cause to be put, the Records and 
Papers belonging to their respective Offices into strong and light Inclosures 
sufficient to exclude Rain, and to keep or cause them to be kept, and from Time 
to Time to be removed in the same, respectively, to such Place and Places, as 
they shall severally think most conducive to the Security of such Records and 
Papers, respectively. 

This concurrent resolution also made provision for military guards 
to protect the records, and the senate said it would concur with the 
house in passing a special law in case it should "be necessary to 
justify the carrying of this Resolution into Execution." * 

In 1817 one William Teller mutilated two volumes of deeds by 
tearing out several leaves and substituting fraudulent conveyances 
in their stead. ITe was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1819. This 
is not the only instance of piracy and fraud to which the records 
have been subjected. Only this year the office of the district attorney 
of New York Comity reported as to an investigation of conditions in 
the special sessions and charged that bills were padded and false 
enl pies were made of vouchers. 

By chapter L20 of the laws of 1881, entitled "An act concerning 
certain records in the office of the secretary of state and of the 
comptroller," certain records, documents, and files were transferred 

i Senate Vot.-s and Proceeding* Fish-Kill: Samuel London, 1777, p. 92; Assembly 
Vot.s :ihii Proceedings. Kingston: John Holt, 1777, p. 90. 



CONFERENCE OF ARCHIVISTS. 373 

to the custody of the New York State Library, and this act was 
amended by chapter 274 of the laws of 1907, by which more manu- 
script materials were transferred to the same jurisdiction. It fol- 
lows, however, that sets of records are yet separated, and the same is 
true of records that are intimately related. The idea of centraliza- 
tion is embryonic only. It is questionable whether this wholesale 
transfer of records to the State library has been a godsend. For 
years they have been crowded into one of the most inadequate rooms 
of the capitol, with only one crescent window swinging on a pivot as 
the sole avenue of natural light and air, and subject to heat and 
stuffiness. All the while these priceless records have been in this 
tomb the printed books and pamphlets of the library have been 
nursed by a decimal classification and all the other paraphernalia of 
modern library economy, and printed genealogies dwell in the sump- 
tuous surroundings of a $28,000,000 capitol. It is true, of course, 
that these State records will be removed in a couple of years to the 
new State education building, and there is promise that more ade- 
quate quarters will be given to them there than had been originally 
allotted to them in the plans, due, as I have reason to believe, to my 
campaign on behalf of the public records. 

The lost records give rise to serious reflections in us. There are 
cases in which we must depend wholly upon some printed or contem- 
porary or later transcript, the accuracy of which can no longer be 
ascertained with certainty, because the original is either lost, mu- 
tilated, or decayed from neglect. Too often the key of truth has 
perished, leaving us only the uncertain premises that are afforded by 
incompleteness. 

In 1901 the public archives commission of the American Historical 
Association published its first report, and the bulk of it was a 
" Report on the Archives and Public Records of the State of New 
York and of New York City," by Dr. Herbert L. Osgood. A pioneer 
effort under private auspices, it has been awarded the highest praise, 
and it has served many a forlorn student as a guide. Admittedly, 
it is far from complete for the State. It says to the State and the 
divisions thereof: "Here is the way, walk ye in it." This report 
showed that records were found in frame buildings used for business 
purposes, such as feed stores, glove factories, barber shops, and fur- 
niture stores, and that papers were kept in cellars and mildewed, 
in wooden cases, in wooden desks, loose in packing boxes, in lofts and 
garrets, and in sheds with household rubbish. The report declares 
that in two towns of Onondaga County the masses of stored manu- 
scripts were deliberately burned, because they were considered a use- 
less burden. Yet the records are the property of the people, and as 
such are legally and theoretically accessible to all. Section 941 of 



374 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 

the Code of Civil Procedure provides for the introduction as evi- 
dence of — 

an act, ordinance, resolution, by-law, rule, or proceeding of the common council 
of a city, or of the board of trustees of an incorporated village, or of a local 
board of health of a city, town, or incorporated village, or of a board of super- 
visors, within the State . . . either from a copy thereof, certified by the city 
clerk, village clerk, clerk of the common council, clerk or secretary of the local 
board of health, or clerk of the board of supervisors ; or from a volume printed 
by authority of the common council of the city, or the board of trustees of the 
village, or the local board of health of the city, town, or village, or the board of 
supervisors. 1 

All of these provisions are presumptive evidence that these records 
are supposed to be well preserved and in an accessible manner. 

We are cognizant of cases of wanton destruction, of " borrowed " 
records, of papers lost by theft or through carelessness. A few may 
be mentioned. A number of the early volumes of New York City 
Deeds (conveyances, mortgages, etc.) are missing from the register's 
office. A correspondent of ours was recently informed " that several 
volumes disappeared during the incumbency of the last register, 
while the office was at 160 Nassau Street, after the old Hall of Rec- 
ords had been razed and before the new building w 7 as ready for occu- 
pancy." In the summer of 1908 there was returned to the city of 
New York a volume of the " Minutes of the Executive Boards of 
the Burgomasters of New Amsterdam," and notarial records of 
"Walewyn van der Veen, found among the effects of the late Berthold 
Fernow T in the State of Maine. This material was not included in, 
although a part of, the " Eecords of New Amsterdam," which he had 
edited for the city. No doubt, he was permitted to take them away 
for temporary use, as he furnished translations to private auspices 
for publication. 2 It is, however, a curious commentary on the care- 
lessness of administration to find that records could be given out 
and remain out of an office for years until all knowledge or record 
of them had passed from memory. 

About six years ago a bookseller, now of Peekskill, but then of 
New York City, offered in his catalogue for $500 the following item: 

Rough Minutes of the Board of Common Council, 1809 to 1831, and of the 
Board of Aldermen, 1831 to 1847. Bound in 01 volumes of varying thickness, 
nearly folio in form. These are the original manuscript minutes of these two 
branches of the city government, only a portion of which have ever been 
printed. It will be observed that the Important periods of the War of 1812, 
;ui(l the Mexican War, are covered. 

As soon as T saw the item in the catalogue, T recognized that this 

was, indeed, a body of most valuable official manuscripts, to which my 

" Chase: Code of Civil Procedure. Now York ioos. 

■These translations were printed In the Becond volume <>f Biinutes <»f the Orphan- 

mastfr.H Court of New Amslonliiin. Now York, 1907. 



CONFERENCE OF ARCHIVISTS. 375 

attention had been directed several years before, during a visit to 
the city hall of New York. I at once suggested that the item should 
be brought to the attention of the Hon. Seth Low, then mayor, which 
was actually done. Mayor Low turned the case over to his corpora- 
tion counsel, Mr. George L. Rives, who made the usual inquiries 
prior to an execution for a replevin. The bookseller, in his next 
catalogue, doubled the asking price to $1,000, and added these words 
to his note : 

These were a part of the archives of the city of New York till some one with 
ample authority sold them to a junk dealer for old paper, and I happening to 
find them in his possession in process of being packed for the paper mill, they 
were thus rescued from oblivion. Some interested person called the city officials' 
attention to the fact that this " rubbish " had value above old paper price, and 
the " junker " was asked by the city representatives who interviewed him 
why he " did not know enough to send them to the paper mills and have done 
with them?" With too little sense to buy them back and place them where 
they belong and thus cover their ignorance, an attempt has been made to place 
me in a false position, because I had sufficient intelligence at command to be 
able to discern gold from Dutch metal. I can give a clear title to these records, 
and now offer them for sale at just twice the price they were originally adver- 
tised at by me. 

In February, 1909, a volume of the court records of Dutchess 
County, from May 18, 1753, to May 1, 1757, comprising 206 folio 
pages, was sold by a New York auctioneer. I had brought the item 
to the attention of persons in the county before the sale took place, 
but the person who represented these interests at the sale was given 
a limited bid, and the volume was secured by a bookseller. All 
reasonable efforts by way of persuasion having failed to secure the 
restoration of this volume by the bookseller, the grand jury has 
recently been requested to make a formal demand for its return. 

In January, 1909, the New York State Library purchased the 
original minutes of the town of Esperance, Schoharie County, from 
the erection of the town in 1846 to November 10, 1881. This 
volume had been secured by a gentleman who makes a business 
of going around the State to pick up old books and manuscripts. 
It was one of several rescued by him just as they were to be fed 
to a bonfire. 

The records of the town of Ticonderoga, as a local correspondent 
informed me, were burned about 1874. 

The town records of Norwich, Chenango County, prior to 1803, 
are missing. The village records of NorAvich, from its incorpora- 
tion in 1816 to 1843, are lost ; the village and town records of Oxford, 
Chenango County, prior to 1842, are lost or destroyed, and this town 
was formed in 1793. 

A lawyer at Rye has just written that volume A of the records of 
the town of Rye, Westchester County, which was in the town clerk's 



376 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 



«fc 



office in 1848, when Bolton wrote his history of the county, dis- 
appeared subsequently, and could not be found in 1872, when Baird 
wrote a histor}^ of that town. He says : 

It was reported that the book was taken by a person to suppress certain 
records which would prove adverse to claims that he had set up in some litiga- 
tion. Nothing was known to a certainty, but the house of this individual has 
since been destroyed by fire. 

He then points out specific disputes over rights and easements 
which can not be definitely settled, because the grants were all in this 
lost volume. Another correspondent, of White Plains, in the same 
county, has given information that the earliest town minutes of 
White Plains are imperfect, mutilated, frayed, and otherwise in 
bad shape. He also adds : " Valuable records belonging to the county 
of Westchester are in the cellar of the courthouse unprotected," and 
speaks of others that " are in an unclassified shape in the basement 
of the Carnegie Library, not a fireproof structure." 

Almost all of the local records of the town of Manlius, one of 
the oldest settled towns of Onondaga County, were lost in a con- 
flagration about 1890 ; 1 all the early records of the town of Marcellus, 
in the same county, were lost by fire about 1830, 2 and those of the 
town of Van Buren were in part lost by fire in 1861, and this town 
deliberately burned up another large mass in 1894. 3 The village 
records of Onondaga County are kept in the local fire-department 
houses or lockups, usually of frame construction, and fire has wrought 
havoc among these records. 

Prof. Osgood said of the records of the former town of Bushwick, 
Long Island, that " no trace has been found, though the opinion 
is expressed that some of them are still in existence." I learned 
last spring from a correspondent that they are in the Long Island 
Historical Society, and extend from 16G0 to the American Revolu- 
tion. Liber 13 of conveyances of New York City (1G83 to 1G87), 
and Liber 18 (1G87 to 1G94) have disappeared since 1900 from the 
register's office. This act in the tragedy is almost a farce, but I 
believe the volumes are now in the possession of a historical society, 
having been secured quite recently. The organization of a "Hall of 
Records Association " in New York City, by members of the Bar 
Association, Real Estate Exchange, Board of Trade and Transpor- 
tation, and others, has brought to fruition the stately new "Hall of 
Records " in this city. Just a year ago there was considerable agita- 
tion on the part of the Bar Association of the city of New York in 
relation to the delay in centralizing the scattered records in the new 
building. A few years ago truck loads of the mayor's records were 
taken out of a dungeon in the City Hall and sent to the Lcn<>\ 

iQfgood'8 Report, p. L54. "Ibid., p. L55. "Ibid., i>. i- r »;>. 



CONFERENCE OF ARCHIVISTS. 377 

Library Building for sorting and elimination. They were about as 
filthy a jumble as the eye ever rested on; yet, they represent the most 
valuable materials of the city's administration for about half a cen- 
tury. Among this miscellaneous jumble was easily found, after 
classification, what is, perhaps, the most important document attest- 
ing the city's rights in the so-called " Eleventh Avenue Tracks " 
case- — a matter that has been agitating the people and the legislature 
for years. The original records of the town of Harlem were secured 
by a title company of New York City and transferred to a second 
party so as to avoid inquirers. Few local records in the State would 
have as great value to litigants and as great interest to historians as 
these ; yet, they are held in private ownership and are inaccessible for 
public or scholarly uses. Quite too many of our official records and 
historical sources are buried away by the title companies of the State. 
Again, recently the county clerk of Niagara County refused or 
neglected to turn over to his successor mortgage -tax records, and it 
was only after the State board of tax commissioners threatened him 
with mandamus proceedings that he finally gave them up. Our 
informant, who has also pointed out the meagerness of the town 
records of Hurley, New Paltz, and other places in Ulster County, 
wrote : 

I have often noticed the carelessness existing in country towns about keeping 
records. Few town clerks are provided with safes in which to preserve town 
records. Instead of a town hall the town officers are allowed to keep town 
records in their own private houses, and very often when they go out of office 
they neglect or refuse to turn over these records to their successors. I have 
known of instances [he says] where newly elected officers have had to make 
repeated demands upon their predecessors in office to obtain town records. If 
you can create a sentiment among the people that will properly safeguard local 
records, rich in historical association, you will do something the whole State 
will some day thank you most heartily for. 

Now, I am happy to report to this conference of archivists that the 
promotion of this line of work has been uppermost in my mind from 
the day that I entered upon the office of State historian of New York. 
I immediately began to draft a bill for amending the law relating 
to the powers and duties of the State historian, and this bill added 
provisions with reference to the public records throughout the State. 
The history of the inception, progress, and failure of this legislation 
has been written and will be printed in the next volume of Proceed- 
ings of the New York State Historical Association. 1 This bill was 
antagonized by the commissioner of education, who demanded a 
hearing, which was granted. The bill was amended and passed the 
assembly with only one dissenting vote. In addition to the provi- 

1 This address on " The Executive Relation of New York State to Historical Scholar- 
ship " has since been printed in Proceedings of New York State Historical Association, 
vol. IX, (1910), pp. 199 ff. 



378 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 

sions for reorganizing the office, two sections relative to records were 
in the bill as passed in assembly, viz : 

Sec. 92. The State historian may communicate with State and local officers 
of this State who are entrusted by law with the care or custody of any books, 
records, documents, or materials of historic value, for the purpose of ascer- 
taining the character and condition of such materials of historic value. He 
may visit any public office in the State, and shall have access at all reasonable 
times to any such materials as may be therein ; and he is authorized to index, 
calendar, or have photographed any such materials, subject to such arrange- 
ments as may be made with the approval of the said State and local officers. 

Sec 93. No State or local officer shall destroy, sell, or otherwise dispose of 
any records, original or copied, or of any archives in his care or custody or 
under his control, and which are no longer in current use, without first having 
advised the State historian of their nature. 

This bill never got out of the senate committee to which it had been 
referred. Instead thereof a complete substitution was made of a 
bill which had as its sole object the abolition of the State historian 
as an independent executive in the administrative government and 
his subordination under the commissioner of education. Every pro- 
vision as to public records, methods of publication, etc., was gone. 
The assembly defeated this substitute by 68 to 25 votes when returned 
for concurrence in the so-called amendments. The defeat of our 
original measure in behalf of the public records — mute witnesses of 
our past history and our present prosperity — may be characterized 
as the severest tragical blow to New York's public records. 



DEC 18 Ml 



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